1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for hiding data packet pre-buffering delays in multimedia streaming applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, multimedia applications which transmit blocks of data from a source to a destination, e.g., datagram networks, without quality of service (QoS) guarantees have to build up a First-In, First-Out (FIFO) buffer of incoming packets to cope with problems associated with delay jitters, disordered packets, etc. These problems occur in the network layer; therefore, streaming applications are unable to eliminate them. Conventional multimedia streaming applications try to hide these delay jitters, disordered packets, etc. by pre-buffering data packets for several seconds before playing them out. However, this pre-buffering introduces a delay between selection and perception of a channel. For example, when a subscriber uses multimedia applications in datagram networks to play music, the subscriber may have to wait several seconds after a channel is selected before the subscriber hears any music. If existing implementations were to initiate play out immediately, the conventional multimedia streaming applications would generally not have any packets to play out. The user would, in the case of audio rendering, hear distortions such as pops and clicks or interspersed silence in the audio output.